“There’s a lot about Stephanie Daley that’s uncomfortable – the subject matter (teen pregnancy), the cinematography (a prevalence of close-up, hand-held shots that force the viewer into the characters’ proximity), and the fact that one must subject oneself to a cinema full of overly sympathetic, middle-aged women in order to watch it. But that is perhaps what makes this film so effective. It’s a tense drama that doesn’t try to shield the audience from its characters’ experiences just for the sake of making it more digestible... It’s not an easy film to watch, but writer/director Hilary Brougher has crafted such a compelling story that it’s impossible not to let yourself be drawn into this darker side of suburban America.” KIM CHOE’s review continues....[Read More]

“In a thoughtfully developed story you can sense some hot and sinuous structure flexing in between the lines delivered, behind the scenes depicted. But Four Minutes lacked that. It felt like everything that the scriptwriter knew about this story, was told – baldly... Without the scaffolding a strong backstory provides, this movie’s marvellous embellishments, the cast, the production, the camerawork and so on, exist as merely that. Embellishments. It seems the thing I thought I missed wasn’t really there in the first place.” MYTHILY MEHER considers a German prison drama, while continuing the torrent of festival coverage, JACOB POWELL flitters between a documentary on Factory teamster Danny Williams (“Highlighting the imperfect mechanism of human memory A Walk into the Sea simultaneously showcases the enigmatic cinematic work of a man ahead of his time”), and a throwaway Audrey Tautou vehicle (“if it wasn’t for the fact that Priceless is a French language film, I couldn’t see any reason for it being included in a film festival programme”).

“[Kiyoshi] Kurosawa,” writes JOE SHEPPARD on Retribution, “never flinches from Yoshioka’s desperate spiral into doubt and confusion, wisely ratcheting up the tension with slow psychological traps rather than cutting straight to the freaky fx.” He also finds compelling viewing in the grifter confessions of Con Man Confidential: “these affable and charming swindlers are capable of speaking so effortlessly and improvising such engaging and astonishing stories, they always own the camera.” And in a late festival confirmation, SIMON SWEETMAN turns his attention to the elusive genius on display in Scott Walker: 30 Century Man: “This is one music documentary where you won’t even need an appreciation of the artist’s music before hand... Just take your open mind – and a friend – and discover the magic of one of the most unique and innovative musicians, an under-sung hero who sits somewhere between Warhol, Eno, Bowie and Laurie Anderson.”